Zero's Briefs

Foreign Affairs and Geopolitics — Merz postpones call with Trump, Berlin does not explain why — The conversation between the German chancellor and the US president was scheduled for today ahead of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks. Federal government spokesman Stefan Kornelius announced the postponement on the German side, without confirming a connection to Trump’s comments on the AfD’s result in Saxony-Anhalt (Tagesschau, ANSA).

Europe — Brussels allocates 114.7 million to Spain for Ceuta — The European Commission granted Madrid emergency aid of 114.7 million euros to manage the crisis following the irregular entries of July 30 and 31, 2026: according to El País the funds go toward border surveillance, infrastructure and technology, including thermal cameras and underwater drones. The government is publishing today around 40 declassified documents, dated between July 1 and August 1 (El País, Cadena SER).

Europe — Forsa puts AfD at 28% and Merz at approval low — The weekly Forsa poll for RTL and ntv, conducted from September 1 to 7 on 2,502 people, shows AfD at 28%, the Union at 21%, the Greens at 16%, SPD at 12%, Linke at 11%, FDP at 4% and BSW at 3%. In eastern Germany 91% of respondents say they are dissatisfied with the chancellor’s work, compared with 83% in the west. Both outlets are relaying the same dts news agency dispatch: the story has a single origin (new-facts.eu, ad-hoc-news.de).

Sport — Real Madrid raids Milan, tonight Napoli-Arsenal — Real Madrid, coached by José Mourinho, beat Inter 2-1 in the September 8 match; sports newspapers attribute to the nerazzurri errors by Bisseck and goalkeeper Martinez on both goals. At 9pm today Napoli hosts Arsenal at the Maradona, while Roma plays in Istanbul the following day (Sky TG24, Lazionews.eu).

Cinema & Entertainment — Lee Chang-dong returns to competition in Venice after twenty-four years — ‘Possible Love’, produced by Netflix with Jeon Do-yeon and Sol Kyung-gu, is the only Korean film among the 21 in competition and the director’s first work since ‘Burning’ (2018). The official screening was held on September 6 at the Palazzo del Cinema on the Lido; the film has also been invited to the Toronto International Film Festival and the New York Film Festival (Hankyung, Herald Business).

Tech & AI — 28 Pentagon contracts on artificial intelligence published through court action — The Intercept has obtained over 400 pages of US Department of Defense documents through litigation based on the Freedom of Information Act: they concern agreements signed in July 2025 by OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and xAI, worth up to 200 million dollars each, involving two-way data exchange, seconded engineers and joint exercises. The story currently comes from a single source, The Intercept’s investigation, and lacks independent confirmation (AI Weekly).